I. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates generally to cleaning devices and, more particularly, to a floor cleaning device utilizing an elongated strip of adhesive or other cleaning material to remove detritus from a surface.
II. Description of Related Art
There are many previously known cleaning devices which utilize an elongated strip of a cleaning material, such as an adhesive strip. Such cleaning devices typically include an elongated strip of the cleaning material which is wound into a roll with the cleaning side, such as the adhesive side, of the strip facing outwardly.
Such cleaners are oftentimes used, for example, as lint rollers. For the lint roller, the strip is wound on a handle of some sort and the adhesive strip is then rolled along the surface to be cleaned. When the adhesive contacts detritus, such as pet hair, dandruff, and the like, the detritus adheres to the cleaning material. After a period of time, however, the cleaning material on the exposed roll becomes spent and no longer effectively removes detritus from the surface being cleaned. When this occurs, a portion of the strip is removed from the roll thus exposing fresh cleaning material. This process is then repeated until the entire roll is consumed.
Although such rollers with elongated strips of cleaning material have been used for lint rollers, such cleaning rolls are also used to clean a floor or other flat surface. In this case, the handle is elongated with the adhesive roll rotatably mounted at one end of the handle and typically with the axis of the handle perpendicular to the axis of the roll. The person cleaning the floor surface then rolls the cleaning roll along the floor so that the cleaning material removes detritus, such as pet hair, as well as other debris from the floor surface. As with the lint roller, however, the cleaning material becomes exhausted or spent after extended use so that the roll no longer effectively removes detritus and other debris from the floor surface. When this occurs, it is necessary to tear off or remove a portion of the strip from the roll to expose new cleaning material. This process then continues until the entire adhesive roll is consumed.
One disadvantage of these previously known cleaners for floor surfaces, however, is that the debris on the floor surface is oftentimes unsanitary. For that reason, many users are hesitant to handle the adhesive roll when it is necessary to tear off or remove a portion of the strip from the roll to expose fresh cleaning material. Furthermore, the debris from the floor surface also hides the starting point of the next layer of the roll to be removed and longer pet hair can overlap the seam and make it difficult to remove the spent portion of the cleaning strip.
For the above reasons, such cleaning rolls for floor surfaces have not enjoyed widespread use or success.